Innovation News

Washington, DC ― Peter Sullivan reports in The Hill that The Senate Appropriations Committee plans to propose a $400 million increase in funding for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Alzheimer’s has drawn growing bipartisan concern over the sharply growing costs of caring for people with the disease.

Finding a treatment or cure for the disease could save money in the long term, argue advocates for increased NIH funding, such as former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

The new funding comes as part of a bipartisan push from Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to increase NIH funding, the group said.

​The $400 million increase comes on top of the current $991 million in NIH funding for Alzheimer’s. The boost puts the Alzheimer’s Association more than halfway toward its goal of $2 billion per year in funding.

“If signed into law, today’s funding increase will mark an important milestone in Alzheimer’s research—bringing us past the halfway mark toward the funding level experts agree is necessary to end this epidemic,” Robert Egge, Chief Public Policy Officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, said in a statement.

More than 5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, according to the Association, yet there is no treatment.